This “quick cash” procedure would speed the customers’ pass-through, minimize wasteful time in lines, and perhaps eliminate lines entirely.

It is at least worth a try, to see if it helps.

One or two lines could remain open for credit-card purchases, if stations wished.

Implementation should be easy

Individual gas stations can implement this procedure immediately, using their own employees. No need to wait.

Simply advertise it on their station signs, perhaps with a standard slogan such as “Quick Cash Gas” for Emergencies.

If more attendants are needed, then disaster-relief personnel can help during the 2-3 days when evacuation relief is needed.

The procedure could be tried for several hundred miles along the evacuation routes.

Potential Problems?

The only potential problems I see are

Theft of cash, always a problem with cash transactions, and

Shortages of cash at ATMs, if the procedure takes off.

A third potential problem is wanting “cash back” in these special lines.

Let’s say you gave the attendant $60, hoping to fill up the tank, but the gas cost $43.57. The real problem is that everybody leaving town would like a full tank, so they would overpay and then seek cash back. Making change is time-consuming and would defeat the purpose of moving the line quickly.

So, I suggest “Quick Cash Gas mean no change, no cash back,” with that rule announced clearly in advance. The station pockets the difference. The goal is speed.

Bottom Line: Speed

Again, I am not saying it would definitely work.

I am saying it is worth trying to see if it speeds up lines. If unexpected problems crop up during implementation, solve them as they emerge.

That’s Friedrich Hayek’s point about interventions like this one. You can’t know all the issues in advance. But none seems insurmountable.

For now: Cash only. Even amounts only, such as $20, $25, $40. No coins, no change.

Until recently, Qatar has managed to play a complex role in the Gulf as a small, very rich, Sunni-Arab sheikdom, with a citizen population of just 250,000-300,000 plus some two million “ex-pats” (the majority workers from South Asia on term contracts).

Qatar, ruled by its monarchy, has until recently managed to navigate in such a way that it worked both sides of the geopolitical street.

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

Between Two Worlds, Playing a Double Game

◆On the one hand it takes part in the modern, Western-oriented, liberal world order.

It hosts a vast U.S. airbase and related anti-terrorism facilities.

It has created and funded Education City, an enclave for a half-dozen major American universities.

Its national airline, Qatar Airways, has become one of the Gulf giants, challenging the legacy carriers of the US and Europe.

And it continues to export vast quantities of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from its huge reserves — the largest of which it shares with Iran.

◆ On the other hand, it

Has long supported the Muslim Brotherhood, which other Sunni regimes see as a threat.

Maintains very close working relations with Iran.

Is widely alleged to be the source of funding for terrorism.

Hosts and funds Al-Jazeera, whose programming Egypt and Saudi Arabia see as a threat, and

Hosts Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a highly-influential militant Muslim scholar whose program on Al-Jazeera has a wide audience throughout the region, and who has justified suicide terrorism (“heroic martyrdom operations”), and justified domestic violence against women as well as female genital mutilation.

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

Why Are the Saudis, Egyptians, and Emirates taking on Qatar now?

◆In an increasingly fraught Middle East, with Iran increasingly seen as the predominant regional threat, Qatar’s big neighbor, Saudi Arabia, along with Egypt, the UAE, Bahrain, and other Sunni states now have found this an opportune time to rein in their troublesome Gulf neighbor.

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

◆ Additional Readings, setting the Qatar Crisis in the context

The Qataris have been playing a dangerous game for years. They have provocatively supported the Muslim Brotherhood and actively promoted the destabilization of existing regimes, using huge sums of money as well as the pernicious influence of Al Jazeera TV. The dramatic steps taken against them over the past few days are thus hardly surprising, but they shed some light on the present stage in the struggle for regional hegemony. –Eran Lerman

The fact that the Sunni Arab world was unable to impose its basic approach on a small peninsular emirate is indicative of the deep crisis brewing in the Gulf over the lack of real leadership in the Sunni world.

Sunnis are the vast majority in the Muslim world, making up some 85% of Muslims – and yet somehow, the Iran-led Shiite minority is the driving force behind the processes moving the Middle East. –Yaakov Amidror

She’s a big Bernie Sanders supporter and may have thought this was part of the “Resistance,” which she has supported online.

The case showed the department’s willingness to crack down on leaks, as Mr. Trump has called for in complaining that they are undermining his administration. His grievances have contributed to a sometimes tense relationship with the intelligence agencies he now oversees.

The Justice Department announced the case against the contractor, Reality Leigh Winner, 25, about an hour after the national-security news outlet The Intercept published the apparent document, a May 5 intelligence report from the National Security Agency. –New York Times

Comment: Good. A first step.

Now, go after the big boys and girls, who aren’t as careless as kids still on their parents’ insurance.

“I always see this on TV,” [the uncle of 23-year-old-victim Devonta Scott] said looking at frantic relatives holding each other splashed in strobing police lights. “I just never thought it would happen to me.” –Chicago Tribune

And then, the most common ending to all this shootings in poor, black neighborhoods.

Police reported no arrests. –Chicago Tribune

Comment: The problems are extremely serious and just as hard to manage.

The city needs a lot more police but cannot afford them.

The worst neighborhoods know who the criminals are, but they don’t cooperate with the police, either because they don’t trust the cops or they fear the bad guys, or both

The gangs have splintered, so dozens and dozens of gangs are fighting lethally for each street corner.

The gang members have no fathers, no education, and no jobs

The headlines mislead outsiders in one important respect. The crime and killing is largely a product of–and confined to–very poor neighborhoods. Occasionally, it spills out as members try to escape their enemies or rob the rich, but that’s uncommon.

Several countries have cut ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism in the Gulf region.

Qatari nationals in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been given two weeks to leave.

Qatar denies backing militants and its foreign minister has called for “a dialogue of openness and honesty”.

Egypt said it was closing off its airspace to Qatar from 04:00 GMT on Tuesday “until further notice”. –BBC

Comment: The sanctions are a very good idea against a very bad actor, one the US has coddled for years because we have bases there. No more. And the shift in US policy made it easier for the Arab states to form this coalition.

The question is whether it’s a first step or a showy diversion to avoid taking others, such as staunching the local donations to terrorists.

The ritual is normally carried out for every Muslim, regardless of their actions.

In what is a highly unusual move, Muslim religious leaders from different schools of Islam — both Sunni and Shia — issued a statement late Monday saying their pain at the suffering of the victims of Saturday’s attacks had led to their decision, and they called on others imams to follow suit. –CBS

Comment: Good. Also good: it seems like several Muslims who knew the attackers told the police about them, but the officials dropped the ball.

One reason why important things slip through the cracks: the UK current has 500 active terror investigations, plus another 3000 top-tier subjects of interest, and 20,000 more one tier below that. Those numbers are overwhelming.

Saudi: Completely reverses Obama’s disastrous tilt toward Iran, reorients US policy to fight Iran and terrorism, makes a promising effort to incorporate a large coalition of Muslim states in the fight; good speech, too

Israel: Hard to say whether the Palestinian-Israel talks will go anywhere; what Trump did in Saudi does set a positive context, but it is still a stretch; the negatives are that Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas will do everything they can to stop it, and the Palestinians have no effective government to make peace with, nor has their population come to grips with the far-reaching and permanent concessions they will have to make; the Israelis have no confidence that a peace deal would be adhered to or give them more security

NATO: Telling the Europeans the hard truth that they need to pay up is good. What’s bad is Trump’s failure to restate the core principle of NATO, that an attack on one is an attack on all (Article 5). That omission could send a catastrophic signal to Russia about the vulnerable Baltic states, which are NATO members. The only reasonable explanation is that Trump is signaling the Europeans that, if you don’t pay up, you cannot expect us to treat you as full alliance partners. Very risky business.

Jared Kushner and Russia’s ambassador to Washington discussed the possibility of setting up a secret and secure communications channel between Trump’s transition team and the Kremlin, using Russian diplomatic facilities in an apparent move to shield their pre-inauguration discussions from monitoring, according to U.S. officials briefed on intelligence reports. . . .

The meeting also was attended by Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser.

The White House disclosed the meeting only in March, playing down its significance. But people familiar with the matter say the FBI now considers the encounter, as well as another meeting Kushner had with a Russian banker, to be of investigative interest.

Kislyak reportedly was taken aback by the suggestion of allowing an American to use Russian communications gear at its embassy or consulate — a proposal that would have carried security risks for Moscow as well as the Trump team. –Washington Post

Comment: Initial public interest has focused on the idea of a “back channel.” That’s not what’s important here; back channel communications are common. What’s important here is two things. First, the idea of using the Russians’ equipment to communicate this is amazingly amateurish and reckless (or at least at seems that way to me, as a non-professional in secret communications with adversaries). This scheme was probably Flynn’s misjudgment and Kushner’s inexperience. Second, it says the Trump team was extremely concerned the Obama administration was monitoring everything they had to figure out a different way to communicate securely.

A third issue is bound to come up. What did they want to talk about? If they were talking about Syria, you could criticize them for undermining the sitting president. If they were doing anything that affected the business interests of private parties–and there is no indication they were–then that would be corruption.

Only the Republicans could possibly gain from having Hillary out there hectoring the crowds, her shrill voice and tone-deaf delivery proving she still cannot give a decent speech, despite her having received tens of millions for giving them. (That’s a cruel joke, of course. She was paid because she and Bill provided access to power. It was a corrupt, rent-extraction game on a vast scale.)

For Democrats, the real problem is that she reminds people of the none-too-glorious past and makes it harder for the party to develop new faces for the future. To recharge things, the Democrats need some new voices. It would help if they were not yet living in a retirement community on Social Security and a Reverse Mortgage.

Comment: The dangers from North Korean nukes are real and present. Their last test was a solid-fuel rocket (which means it can be launched quickly) and went to a very high altitude (which means it can already hit targets as far away as Guam).

To kill these intercontinental missiles, which leave the atmosphere, is different from killing shorter-range missiles.

The US has been working on this incredibly complex technical task since Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars). The latest iteration is what they will be testing.

There is a partisan-political dimension here, too, aside from the need to fund the program. Now that America needs a serious anti-missile defense to protect against a North Korean attack on the continental US, people might want to look back and ask who has opposed, undermined, and underfunded that research at every stage over the past three decades. These political opponents, unlike North Korean missiles, won’t be especially hard to identify.

Each month, we hear news reports about “today’s unemployment figures,” numbers that are currently very good and getting better.

What do those unemployment numbers measure? Are there different ways to figure them?

Basically, the numbers we hear are the “top line” numbers, collected by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), based on their surveys. But, just as the Dow-Jones Average is only one measure of how the overall stock market is doing, those top line numbers are only one gauge of employment.

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

The goal here is simply to explain what those unemployment numbers include and what they leave out.

First, the official BLS numbers come from sample surveys, which are adjusted later as additional data comes in.

Second, the numbers need to be adjusted for seasonal-weather effects. If we didn’t do that, then we couldn’t fairly compare unemployment in January and July. So, we adjust for known seasonal effects. The problem is that the average effects for January may not apply to this January. Perhaps it is warmer than normal so more construction can be done outdoors. Or perhaps a major storm knocked out power. These differences mean seasonal adjustments are always approximate. That’s why it is more reliable to look at trends and averages.

⇒BLS data includes both seasonally-adjusted and raw numbers, but the news reports only the adjusted number. That’s reasonable. Sometimes, they add the caveat that this year’s weather may tilt the numbers in one direction or another.

Third, there are different ways to decide

Whether someone is fully employed, unemployed, or underemployed (either working fewer hours than full-time or working in a lesser position), and

Whether someone is part of the potential work force or not. Are they of working age and fit to work, mentally and physically? Are they actually looking for work?

Since there are different ways to answer these questions, the BLS offers several ways of measuring unemployment, from U1 to U6. These are the 3 most important:

U1: The narrowest measure of unemployment.

Persons unemployed 15 weeks or longer, as a percent of the civilian labor force

U3: The standard measure–the one reported in the news

Total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor force

These are people who are without jobs and have actively looked for work within the past four weeks

U6: The broadest, most comprehensive measure

Total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

These numbers usually go up and down in sync, but not always. When the job market gets stronger, some people move off the sidelines and begin hunting for jobs again. If they don’t find them right away, their failure actually increases the U3 unemployment number (since they had not been counted as unemployed when they were not actively looking).

Since we mostly hear about the U3 rate, it is important to understand who is not included. If I were laid off, age 39 as the Chicago White Sox backup shortstop and stopped looking for work because I knew nobody was hiring 39 year-old shortstops, I would not be counted as unemployed. Why? Because I wasn’t looking for work.

If I decided, as a last resort, to work 10 hours a week coaching a high-school baseball team, I would be counted as employed, even though I wanted to work 40 hours. So, the U3 rate leaves out some people that you or I might consider “unemployed” or “underemployed.”

To get this larger picture, you can look at a more comprehensive measure, such as U5 or U6.

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

Fortunately, the numbers on all these measures is good and getting better. Here are the seasonally-adjusted numbers.

Here is the ten-year trend for U3, showing the drastic rise with the financial crash and the steady improvement since unemployment peaked in late 2009. If GDP growth had been stronger, the numbers might have been better sooner. But the Obama Administration can rightly look at this steady improvement in employment numbers and tout it as a major achievement.♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

Today’s ZipDialog Roundup included a story about violence by the notorious MS-13 gang, originally from El Salvador, now entrenched across the US. Engaged in a wide range of crimes, it is still mainly a drug cartel.

Today’s story was about several bodies, tortured and mutilated, found on Long Island. Police attribute to crimes to the MS-13 drug gang.

A friend wrote that she knew judges in the area and that are reporting large numbers of rapes and other violent crimes by the El Salvadorans.

My Response

Comment:These drug-selling gangs are a scourge. It is stunning that, for so long, it was considered bad form to even talk about them because they were “immigrants.”

That’s when PC becomes truly dangerous: it blocks a serious discussion of the problems. The problems don’t disappear; it just means the most extreme voices speak about them and, sadly, find a hearing.

We need good people to come here from all over the world, not cartels selling drugs. And we need to be able to talk about the issues honestly, without slipping into racist generalizations or, conversely, being falsely accused of them.

The Crucial Data

Here is some vital data, in a few charts based on official sources (the Drug Enforcement Administration, Centers for Disease Control, and so on). To see a more complete report, go to the 2016 National Drug Threat Assessment (here) It is painful reading, but it is essential for an informed debate on these issues, which range from drug treatment to sanctuary cities.

The increasing use has led to increasing deaths, not only because “regular” heroin is deadly but because it is increasingly dosed with lethal opioids, particularly fentanyl.

While violent deaths from other sources are steady or declining, those from drug poisoning are rising.

The “demand side” is obviously an internal US problem.

The “supply side” are gangs who bring the drugs in, mainly from Mexico.

It’s not just heroin coming across the southern border. It’s also cocaine, mostly from Columbia.

The fentanyls come from legitimate drug manufacturers, who products are channeled into illegal uses, and, increasingly, from China. Some is smuggled directly into the US. Some comes across the US border after being shipped through Mexico or Canada.

There are a number of competing Latin American gangs who sell these drugs, as the data from Texas clearly show.

But no one should think these gangs are limited to border regions. They have spread out across the United States. Rooting them out is, quite rightly, a high-priority issue.

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

Thank you to Marcia Sukenik Weiss, whose thoughtful comments prompted this outline of the epidemic.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

The Passover Seder celebrates the Jewish people’s exit from slavery in Egypt, a story told in the book of Exodus. It is family-and-friends dinner celebration, held each spring. The date varies because it is set by the lunar calendar, just as Easter is. The connection to Easter is no accident. Jesus’ Last Supper was a Passover Seder. Both use common symbols of springtime rebirth, such as eggs and lambs.

So, what happens at a seder?

The main point is to read the story of the Exodus as a group activity with friends and family, with periodic prayers over wine, food, and such.

The service is normally conducted at home, or perhaps a club or synagogue dining area.

It is not a synagogue service, such as the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

The content of Passover services varies a bit–in length, in the amount of Hebrew used, and in whether it is celebrated on only the first night or the first two.

The holiday itself lasts eight days, but the full Seder is normally conducted only at the beginning.

Matzoh, or unleavened bread, is eaten for the entire week. No leavened bread.

For Jewish homes that keep Kosher, there are special rules for keeping Kosher on Passover. The point is to ensure that you do not touch, much less eat, leavened foods. That typically requires separate china and silverware and a rigorous cleansing of the house to get rid of all leavened products. What counts as “leavened” differs among rabbis.

The normal Jewish rule applies: if there are two rabbis, there will be at least three opinions, all deeply held and based on multiple rabbinic sources.

Although family seders differ, they have a lot in common.

All Passover Seders

Are based on participants reading together from a “Passover Haggadah,” or prayer book.

There are many variations of these prayer books. Book collectors and rare-book libraries have assembled thousands from medieval Europe, the ancient Middle East, and all countries of the Jewish Diaspora

Emphasize the Exodus from Egypt in the “present tense,” as if we are reliving the flight to freedom;

Ask and answer “Four Questions,” focused on the central question: “Why is tonight different from all other nights?“

Use the prayer service to answer the four questions, reinforced by eating symbolic foods, such as

Horseradish to emphasize the pain of slavery and

Parsley dipped in salt water to emphasize the slaves’ sweat and tears and the parting of the Red Sea

Include a symbolic plate, with items such as the horseradish, parsley, eggs, and a lamb’s shank bone, which are directly related to the four questions and the prayer service

Highlight a specific food, matzoh, which symbolizes the need to leave Egypt hurriedly, without waiting for the bread to rise.

All Seders stop near the conclusion of the prayer service for a regular dinner (explained below), followed typically the final prayers, some group songs, and a child’s game, hunting for a piece of matzoh (the afikoman) hidden by the adult in charge of the service. The child who finds it receives a small reward, such as sweets or money.

The regular dinner served on Passover

What everybody starts with, in my experience, is matzoh-ball soup and some gefilte fish (a mix of fishes, served as a cold patty).

The main course is usually chicken or lamb–there is no standard.

Wine is passed around freely and there are multiple times when it is drunk during the service itself, a rare feature among Jewish festivals.

Although wine stores are now stocked with fine “Kosher for Passover” wines, all Baby Boomer Seders include a bottle of Manischewitz to remind them how we not only escaped from Egypt, we took at detour through Napa Valley before arriving in the Land of Milk and Honey.

Finally, every Seder ends with the same brief statement of hope: “Next Year in Jerusalem”

The complete phrase is often said as:

This year we are here, next year we will be in the Land of Israel.

This year we are slaves, next year we will be free.

Next year in Jerusalem. –said joyously at the conclusion of Passover Seder

There are many interpretations, naturally. Here is mine.

For Americans, this is not a hope to leave a country we love. We could leave freely if we chose to do so. Most do not, anymore than Irish-Americans or Italian-Americans return to their ancestral homes.

For Jews, though, the statement has three intertwined meanings.

First, it underscores a cultural connection to the land where Jews have lived for thousands of years. (We stated this wish at every Passover for centuries, long before anti-Semites began denying Jews had any historic connection to the land of Israel, a truly vile trope.)

Second, it underscores a connection to Jews across the world, all of whom are saying the same thing in Hebrew and their native languages.

Third, and most important for observant Jews, it means we will all return to Jerusalem–the Biblical ideal–when the Messiah comes and the Temple is rebuilt. That is why even Jews who live in Jerusalem can pray, “This year we are here. Next year in Jerusalem.”

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Hat Tip from ZipDialog Explainer to

* Susannah McCafferty Sanders for asking this question, and to

* Scott Stantis for raising some related questions after he had attended a Seder this week.